Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of the common general knowledge in the field.
Retailers and others who display goods commonly use demountable shelving and display supports for displaying those goods.
One requirement for commercial display systems is that they be versatile with respect to shelf or support positioning, in order to accommodate different types of displays and product lines. A commonly employed display system would be expected to include a plurality of cantilevered supports for shelving panels or the like, a display wall that features a plurality of display wall support mountings arranged in a suitable array, and a plurality of support brackets that can be inserted in selected ones of the mountings and which have a cantilevered arm that support the shelves or products at the display wall. The functional geometry of the interacting support mounting wall, with respect to strength, ease of installation and removal, and cost, are strong marketplace differentiators between the available systems.
A display mounting system of the above-described type, well known in the art in Australia is supplied by Australian Slatwall Industries Pty Ltd and is sold under the trademark SLATWALL™. Problems inherent with this type of system, that will be familiar to those skilled in the art, include an inability to support heavy loads. These problems are described in more detail in Australian Patent Document No. 2004201505, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The above patent document further describes an improved shelving bracket mounting system and in particular describes an arcuate anchor portion for the cantilevered arms which has various benefits over the existing SLATWALL™ display mounting system, as well as a particular cavity profile for receiving the cantilevered arms which, in combination, provide a secure retention of the mount in the cavity having a very good strength and practical utility. The cavity profile described in the patent document provides a good level of support for the anchor portion which has a different profile to that of the cavity. A cavity which has an identical internal profile that is congruent or identical to the external profile of the anchor portion would provide improved support. That is, it would be most preferable to have a direct male-female correlation between the profiles of the anchor portion and cavity, i.e. a shape fit.
Unfortunately, the practical constraints of manufacture of shop fitting panels having grooves cut therein, whether they be constructed from extruded aluminium, craft wood or other material, mean that it would be expensive and somewhat difficult to reliably produce an exact groove of the type required in such panels.
It is an object of the present invention to provide panels for a display mounting system wherein an improved receiving cavity is provided for an arcuate anchor portion of a display support bracket which can be manufactured in a reliable and cost effective manner.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a system for mounting such panels to a shop wall which facilitates rapid installation of the panels and minimizes the appearance of screws, bolts or other fastening devices when installed.